FRANCE LOSES AGAIN. London won the Olympics selection. Congratulations! Paris lost. Congratulations! Paris lost for the 3rd time in 20 years. It sounds like they just don’t want to have the Olympics there boys. I think it is the Capri pants on the men. Paris has not hosted since 1924.

Moscow also lost, but early. They committee just could not see Putin the Olympics in Russia.

This is a great victory for Tony Blair over Jacques Chirac also, as both campaigned vigorously. Blair wore full length pants, though. Blair rubbed it in a little: “Many people do reckon that London is the greatest city in the whole world at the moment”. He also said “This is a momentous day for London.”

French President Jacques Chirac actually suffered his fourth defeat in 15 months, including the spectacular failure of the EU constitution in France. Complaints about the way Chirac handled the Olympic bid have become personal and pointed. He has been called awkward and a ham.

Now he has to face Tony Blair at the G8 conference after insulting Britain yesterday. His insult had to do with food, so it is fitting that he is now eating crow.

The issue is really larger than either the Olympics, G8 or food. It is about who is the leading in Europe. Yves Michaud, a philosophy profess at the University of Rouen said “Chirac and Blair are locked in a contest over the leadership of Europe''. Right now, Mr. Blair has the clear edge, leading the G8 and winning the Olympic bid.

In fact, Chirac’s leadership of France is in doubt. After prominently defying and obstructing the United States in the U.N. and in the Iraq war, Chirac has suffered defeat on several issues and led his country into an economic slump to go with the slump in prestige. Chirac hoped to run for a 3rd term as president, but his approval rating has fallen to 28 percent in June. It fell 12 points since May. That is free fall. (Cue Tom Petty song "Free Falling" here.) That is falling even faster than France’s unemployment rate is rising (10.2 percent).

Pardon me if I sound like I am gloating.

Heh heh.